Canvas Resources

Canvas Guides

Get the most out of your Canvas experience! Canvas offers a collection of illustrated guides and instructional videos for instructors and students alike. The guides cover a wide range of topics and are updated regularly by the Canvas team. Many guides are also available for download as PDF manuals. To access Canvas Guides, visit https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/guides/.

Canvas Release Notes

To find out what's new in the latest version of Canvas, visit the Release Notes page on the Canvas community website. Release notes for the live production environment are listed as "Canvas Production Release Notes," while release notes for the beta environment are listed as "Canvas Beta Release Notes."

Canvas Test Environment

The Canvas test environment allows you to test using your real data without affecting the live production environment (your actual Canvas classes). Here, you can try out new ideas, test changes, and/or troubleshoot issues without ruining the experience for your class. The test environment is overwritten with data from the live production environment every three weeks. This means that any changes you make on the test environment will automatically be overwritten every three weeks.

The test environment is separate from the beta environment, which allows you to try out upcoming Canvas features and is overwritten with data from the live production environment every week.

Additional notes about the test environment:

All users can access the Canvas test environment, but students cannot access content beyond the Course Home Page.

Notifications cannot be sent in the test environment.

Crocodoc (annotation tool in SpeedGrader) is not available in the test environment.

SCORM is not available in the Canvas test environment.

Any changes you want to keep in the test environment must be made directly within the production environment.

Account-level user page views reflect activity from the production environment.

Canvas Beta Environment

The Canvas beta environment allows you to try out new Canvas features before they reach the live production version of Canvas. You can make changes in the beta environment without affecting the live production environment (your actual Canvas classes). The beta environment is overwritten with data from the live production environment each Sunday. This means that any changes you make on the beta environment will automatically be overwritten every week.

If you would like to keep up on the latest beta features in Canvas, visit the Release Notes page on the Canvas community website.

The beta environment is separate from the test environment, which allows you to test changes on the current version of Canvas and is overwritten every three weeks.

Additional notes about the beta environment:

All users can access the Canvas beta environment, but students cannot access content beyond the Course Home Page.

Notifications cannot be sent in the beta environment.

Crocodoc (annotation tool in SpeedGrader) is not available in the beta environment.

SCORM is not available in the Canvas beta environment.

Any changes you want to keep in the beta environment must be made directly within the production environment.

Account-level user page views reflect activity from the production environment.